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N64 Classic "Goldeneye 007" Almost Didn't Have Multiplayer

Mike Rougeau is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles, CA. When he's not taking pictures of his dog he's covering video games, technology and entertainment. Follow him on Twitter and Google+ for all the inane ramblings you can handle.

Goldeneye 007 just wouldn't have been the same without multiplayer. We played the shit out of the single-player levels, but the multiplayer added years of longevity to the awesome N64 classic.

Interesting, then, that it almost wasn't included at all.

At GDC Europe 2012, Goldeneye game director Martin Hollis shared some interesting insight into the game's development. Apparently the multiplayer was added during the last month of development and "was done without the knowledge or permissions of the management at Rare and Nintendo," he said. He added that it would never have happened had the dev team asked permission first, since the game was already late.

Further, he shared the fun fact that a lot of the little touches that made the game so fun—from enemies getting tossed around by explosions to contextual animations for crotch shots—were added last-minute when the team at Rare were ordered to make the game less violent.

Would you still be playing Goldeneye if it didn't have multiplayer? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.